Monday, July 26, 2010

HollyscoopTV caught up with American Idol's Casey James at the KISS FM Purse Party. He talked about his American Idol performance with Bret Michaels, the American Idol Tour (Get Tickets Now - Order Here!) & the scoop on going to Country Music. Interview by Kara Magee.

Monday, July 19, 2010

MINERAL WELLS — Where else but America (possibly Great Britain, too), could a musician from a small community rise to national recognition in a mater of months.

“Where could this happen,” queried Debra James to a roomful of Kiwanis members Tuesday. “He went from playing in little bars to performing in a packed Nokia Theater.”

James, the mother of Cool-born Casey James, spoke to the group about her journey with the Fox Television show “American Idol.”

She recounted one gig she played with Casey in Grapevine one fall, where the audience was more interested in the Cowboys football game playing on the screen behind them.

“When we played in Grapevine, he turned to me and said, ‘Mom, I think we could set ourselves on fire and nobody would notice.’”

In a matter of weeks this spring, Casey’s popularity skyrocketed while competing in the top ranks of “Idol.”

“He couldn’t go shopping near the end [of “American Idol”] and he had bodyguards,” she told Tuesday’s audience. “Boy, that was real different for him.”

James said as her son progressed up the ranks in the show, “Idol” started providing wardrobe support. She illustrated this with the English Laundry shirt he wore during his homecoming tour, as well as on other occasions. She held up the pale blue shirt, carefully tailored to her son’s lean body.

“He’s six-four” and has a 30-inch waist, so they had to take [his shirts] up,” she said.

As she spoke, James entertained questions from Kiwanians.

“How do they get along as a family?” Penni Beauregard asked about the 10 Idols who will be touring together this summer, starting today in Michigan.

“I think it’s like any other family,” replied James, adding, “Casey can get along with anyone. He just rolls with it.”

During her visits to Hollywood, Debra James said she became closest with the families of “Andrew Garcia, he’s just precious, Tim Urban, a Texas boy, and little Aaron [Kelley, the] little bitty boy with a big voice,” whom she also called “cute as a spotted pup.”

“It’s staggering how many dates they have for the tour,” said Debra James. She said the singers they travel by bus to each location and will be in Texas Aug. 7 (Houston) and Aug. 9 (Dallas).

James informed members of a studio recording she particularly liked of “Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman” – a duet performed by Casey James and Michael Lynche – which James had specifically asked his mother if she listened to.

“They let Casey lose on a Spanish guitar,” she said, citing that this will be on the tour. “They’re keeping the other two a secret.”

Did the experience change Casey?

“As a person, he hasn’t changed at all. He really knows who he is. He’s very grounded,” said Debra James. “He gained a lot of knowledge of the music industry.”

“Casey is in a genre all to his own. He likes blues, country, alternative, rock. He loves B.B. King and Merle Haggard. He hasn’t pigeon-holed himself in one area.

“‘American Idol’ didn’t know what to do with him,” she added.

When Beauregard asked what was “fantastic” and what was Casey’s “biggest disappointment” with the experience, James replied, “I know he would say there was no disappointment. Casey’s an extremely positive person. He views everything as part of a bigger plan.

“I was a screaming maniac, but he was fine. Casey’s very comfortable in his own skin,” she said.

She told Tuesday’s audience, that her son is “more knowledgeable now. He went from a tiny pond and he’s swimming with the sharks.

“Musically [Casey] has had to push himself to a different level,” she said.

“The low point for me was his second performance, ‘I Don’t Wanna Be,’” James said. “I could see how proud he was and they bashed him. He got very ill after that and stayed ill for weeks. He was close to going to the hospital.”

“He pushed himself through that and went through five rounds of antibiotics back-to back. One performance, his third [when he sang Keith Urban’s “You’ll Think of Me”], he was so sick and very subdued and had to push himself through it,” said his mother. She said the doctor who has worked with the show all nine seasons called this the “sickest group of kids he’s seen.”

But, she said there were high points and her son’s biggest surprise was “being able to be with Harry Connick Jr. He’s a writer, singer, composer, the best pianist, a great husband and father and a great guy. He gives a lot. He’s a freak of nature – he does everything perfect.”

She told the group Tuesday that Casey called her during his mentor session and handed the phone to Connick.

“He said, ‘Is this Momma James?’ I said yes it is, knowing who was on the phone. He said, ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do with this son of yours; he’s so ugly.’ He said, ‘I came in the door and he thinks I’m Chris Isaak,’” James said of Connick’s joking phone conversation with her.

“The best advice he got was from Bret Michaels [with whom Casey performed “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” on the show’s finale] and Harry Connick Jr.,” James said.

Since Casey James made it to the final three, he came home in May, to all his homes – Fort Worth, Cool and Millsap, not to mention early-morning interviews in Dallas and appearances in Grapevine and Richardson, too.

“The whole experience coming home was so overwhelming,” said Debra James.

“One of the things I wanted to share with you,” she told Tuesday’s audience, “Someone said, ‘Don’t the Fort Worth police have something better to do than usher Casey James around Fort Worth.’ All of those where off-duty police that ‘American Idol’ paid.”

Casey James came to his native land last of all, visiting Cool then performing in Millsap’s Bulldog Stadium.

“He was thrilled at all of it,” she said coming back to his boyhood home. “He was awestruck in the limo. He was just staring. It was surreal.”

She said her son gave out a deep “horse laugh” when he saw one of the mounted Parker County Sheriff’s Posse with a sign saying “Hi Simon” taped to the horse’s hind end.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Turns out Casey James doesn't play five guitars on four songs. He plays six guitars on five songs, since he also plays on the American Idols Live show's finale, a cover of Bon Jovi's It's My Life.

Here's the rundown:

* a 1983 blue Fender Stratocaster for I Got Mine;
* a Paul Reed Smith acoustic and a white Fender Stratocaster for Don't!;
* a Gibson nylon-string guitar for Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman;
* a PRS Starla for It's All Over Now;
* and a PRS 513 for It's My Life.

Why does he need six guitars for five songs? "Because they all sound different," Casey said afterwards. "Big time. Like night and day."

And for seriously gearheaded Casey James fans, apparently he uses Dunlop Tortex .88 mm guitar picks. Because I think he hit me on the shoulder with one when he threw it from the stage, and it landed in my shirt pocket. I say "apparently" because I didn't actually see him throw it, and I didn't find the pick until I got back to my hotel room -- though I did spend a while after the show helping the people next to me look for it.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

American Idol Top 3 finalist Casey James visits The Wendy Williams Show. Wendy makes it no secret that Casey was, and is, her favorite Idol and that she finds him HOT. Did you hear her the first time? She thinks he's HOT! Wendy looks at Casey likes he's a tall glass of cool on a hot summer's day. After a very quick interview, Casey performs an acoustic version of Ian Moore's "Blue Sky."

Sunday, July 11, 2010

A brief pre-show interview, followed by Casey James and the rest of the American Idol's Top 10 singing a medley of Bon Jovi's "It's My Life" and Kelly Clarkson's "My Life Would Suck Without You" live on Good Morning America in Central Park, NY.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

The noise ratchets up another notch when Casey James takes the stage -- not just because more of the audience jumps to its feet, but because Casey kicks off his set with a blues-rocking version of the Black Keys' I Got Mine geared to let the crowd know just how much they missed on American Idol by not getting him to play guitar more.

Given the freedom of a full song -- and the solos that come with it -- Casey's more animated tonight than he ever was on the show. It's almost as if everything he couldn't do on the show is coming out at once in a flurry of notes, as Casey bends his guitar neck and tortures the strings.

Casey trades in his electric guitar for an acoustic on Shania Twain's Don't! but he switches it out for a second electric in time for the solo.

Afterwards, Casey says, "I want to invite a good friend of mine back up on the stage right now -- Mr. Mike Lynche." Mike comes back out to do Bryan Adams' Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman with the same black acoustic that he used during his set, but Casey has yet another acoustic -- that's four guitars for three songs, for those of you keeping score at home. Around the hall, the cellphones and glo-sticks begin to sway.

After Mike leaves the stage, Casey launches into a scorching version of It's All Over Now, the old R&B hit done by everybody from the Rolling Stones to The Valentinos. It's got a much sharper edge than it did on the show, especially with Casey's slide-guitar licks. And, yes, he's playing yet another guitar. He changes guitars the way Carrie Underwood changes costumes.